Presidio Hill Service: January 2011

Friday, January 28, 2011

Friday 01/28/11 PHS Serves Breakfast at Glide

Reflections on Our Time at Glide Friday 01/28/11

I really enjoyed my time at Glide. It was very different from all the other times that I’ve visited Glide because usually I serve in the coffeehouse. This time I was part of the food prep line and I had the opportunity to see the people we were serving when they got their food. Everyone was very gracious and polite and it was great to see how much we were helping them. Volunteering at Glide is a really great experience to have. I hope that everyone gets a chance to do it because you learn a lot while you’re there. You learn that you shouldn’t judge the homeless people that you see and that instead of avoiding them, you should find a way to help them. Volunteering anywhere is really important, but at Glide you can see the difference you are making.

~ Sofia

I noticed a lot of people were very polite, and thanked Camille when she gave them their food. People sometimes thanked me, also, for wiping the tables and refilling the pitchers of coffee, milk and water. But one thing that made me sad was how many people came, wanting food. It made me think of how many others there could be out there in the world, without the help from a soup kitchen. However I still felt happy that our school was doing something to help the poor.

One part that made me scared was there was a fight in the back part of the restaurant. Also some of the people in general made me feel unsafe. It is kind of hard not to judge them… though I am mostly good at not judging them, there are some people that I get uncomfortable with there.

I enjoy volunteering at glide. I like being with my friends and doing something good for other people. I would have liked to work in the food line instead of on the floor “waiting on tables.” But I still had fun. I hope that I can go again soon to volunteer with my class.

~Katrien

I had fun seeing how grateful the people were that we were serving. It's really sad how many people need those meals. My arm got really tired from putting utensils on trays, but it was worth it to see those happy people.

~Chiara

My experience at glide was fantastic. I had fun working with my friends and dancing to the music! I would so go back!

~Camille

Nothing feels more human and important than serving others and sharing a meal with people, no matter if this is around the dinner table in my home or at the welcoming tables of Mo's Kitchen at Glide.

Getting to support the Tenderloin community and share this experience with PHS students, parents and staff is profoundly meaningful to me. I'm grateful for and impressed with how generously everybody gave of themselves and how hard they worked! This world is definitely a better place for having each of them in it!

~Todd

My day at glide was and amazing experience. It is horrible seeing how many people can’t feed themselves. I was working at the sugar distributor place and every time i gave them sugar they would say thank you so much and have a nice day. The same time I was helping people and having a blast it was very sad because over 700 people came in that morning. I was wondering were do they all stay? The streets all over San Francisco. I am glad that I could help someone out and make him or her have a better day.

~Genevieve

I just wanted to express my appreciation of your help in organizing the volunteering at Glide, and for the experience Camille had yesterday. She said it was "life changing" to volunteer there, and talked a lot about it last night. I think it was all the more powerful for her to have this experience with her classmates and you and Tony.

Thank you for including Camille in this valuable opportunity!

~Kara

When I went to glide I'm not going to lie it smelled sweaty and that's awful. I felt bad for the homeless and didn't think about how I was helping them, but all I was doing was putting oranges on trays. It got boring after looking at all of the oranges so I fell asleep with my eyes opened and my hands were still moving. It was weird but there is this girl called Isabel and she started to talk to me which woke me up. It felt good taking a nap. But then I looked at all of the homeless and saw hundreds of homeless. I didn't even think there was that many homeless in San Francisco. But then I felt good feeding them.

~Johnny Kelly

Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)

PHS Students, Families and Friends Make the World A better Place

Quality Foods at Glide

Making a Difference One Sandwich at a Time

Today at Glide I learned many things, I learned that not all of the people that eat there are homeless. Many of them are homeless, and live on the streets. The majority of the people that do come to Glide live in a house but they are food insecure, meaning they can not afford to buy food. Glide is a great place to go if you’re food insecure. At Glide, my favorite part was working in the Coffee House. I wasn’t in the kitchen chopping up food or just putting some food on the tray. In the coffee house, I had to give people trays of food. What really surprised me was that most of them were actually polite. I would have thought they were going to be rude. Today I made a difference because I helped prepare peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with Charly. We were skilled and used two loafs of bread in less than a minute that is about 40 sandwiches. Since we were working so fast we were able to make more sandwiches than we were supposed to, which was pretty amazing if you ask me. I am looking forward to volunteer at Glide more often so I could help make a difference in the world.

~ Aracely

Glide Day Two February 5, 2015

PHS students showed up for and work three shifts at Glide's meals programs today. They arrived at 6:45 am and served breakfast to more than 450 Tenderloin residents. Students sat with staff and clients and enjoyed the foods they had previously served for breakfast. Students went on to report for their second shift doing food preparations. They had a blast collaborating as they prepared bagged lunches, whipped peanut butter and jelly, made salads, wrapped fried chicken, and cleaned up the kitchen. They rushed off to their third shift serving an amazing fried chicken lunch to grateful guests. Students closed the day by meeting with Reverend Dr Karen Oliveto and Kristen Growney Yamamoto, Co-Executive Director at Glide. Together they reflected on their day of service and set intentions.

Street Retreat 2014 - Making a Difference for People Struggling with Hunger and Homelessness

Our project day was spent taking on the complex issues of hunger and homelessness. We served at San Francisco’s world famous Glide and participated in a street retreat with the renowned Faithful Fools. We became one of the 4,000 plus people from all over the world that have made street retreats since July of 1998! We started our day at 6:45 am serving people living in San Francisco’s infamous Tenderloin in Glide’s Daily Free Meals program. Giving was a transformative experience. The Glide meals program needed us and each day requires 60 volunteers each day in order to fill the breakfast, lunch and dinner shifts, 364 days a year. Our food service shift at Glide was 7:00 am through 9:00 am. Once we finished serving breakfast we participated in a daylong street retreat, where we worked at knowing more about the people we served and the remarkable neighborhood that these people call home. The retreat began at 9:30 am as we gathered with song and reflective readings. After introducing ourselves, sharing what had brought each of us to the retreat and the hopes and expectations that each one brought, an orientation to the layout of the day was given and then we set out onto the streets for a number of hours. We were shadowed by experienced adults who had previously participated in and facilitated retreats. There was nothing that anyone of us was supposed to do except trust that we would be led to that which is ours to encounter in the day. In the afternoon, we regrouped to share our experiences and close with a tea. The daylong street retreat offered an opportunity for all of us to bear witness to our own experiences and life story as it relates to what we encountered as we spent a day walking and exploring the streets of the Tenderloin. We entered into the street retreat not knowing what we would encounter and with a lot of apprehension about what it would be. From that place of not knowing, students discover what there is for each of us to know. This made it possible for each of us to begin to “discover our common humanity.” Myths about this neighborhood and the people we support were shattered. Our own stories were revealed to us. We began to see the light, courage, strength and creativity in the people we encounter. While moving through the day, students and adults were asked to be conscious of what came up from within - attitudes, judgments, fears, assumptions - about who is in the streets and why some people are homeless, especially at a time when we are being told that the freedom and privileges of the United States are envied around the world. What was it we saw and heard and felt as we had conversations with individuals, walked through the streets, sat on a bench in the U.N. Plaza, or in a drop-in center, stood in a food line waiting for a meal, became tired or had to go to the bathroom and confronted signs that say, “rest-rooms for customers only”, or “no loitering”? We shared the richness of the experience as it was reflected through the voices of those who had gone into the streets with us. We treasured sharing this experience.

PHS Pledges Support to Glide Meals Program

By Isabel Schroedel

I first started volunteering at Glide Memorial Church on a field trip in sixth grade. I had a great experience there, and it felt really good to be helping people in need. I decided to volunteer with Glide’s Free Meals program for my Bat Mitzvah community service project, and have continued to volunteer regularly since then, as well as helping out in the volunteer coordination office. Once I became aware of how essential volunteer assistance is to the organization (every meal requires 20 volunteers – that’s 21,900 volunteers a year!), I realized that having more student participation would be extremely beneficial for Glide, as well as provide students with an invaluable learning experience. I approached Todd near the end of last year about starting a Glide Committee at PHS to help arrange more volunteer trips.

Since then, with Todd’s help, I have gotten together a group of students and approached Scott about our plans to organize more frequent volunteer trips. The PHS faculty has been very supportive in our efforts, and, after working very hard organizing during the first semester, we had our first trip to Glide in January. Our first trip was a big success; everything went smoothly, and everybody seemed to have a great time. It was very exciting to see all of our hard work pay off, and we are in the process of organizing more trips for the rest of the year.

Day One SF Food Bank - February 4, 2015

Friday, January 28, 2011

Friday 01/28/11 PHS Serves Breakfast at Glide